Third Take

I downloaded the free Orca softsynth a while back, but never did anything with it. I don’t do a lot with MIDI or softsynths, but last night we were looking for a weird sound to add texture to a song and I remembered Orca.

It’s a monosynth, meaning it can’t play more than one note at a time. That makes it useless for chords, but for single-note lead lines it has some very interesting sounds. We mixed it with drums, bass, and acoustic guitar for a very modern, spacey vibe. It was a lot of fun to play with, but I’m not sure if it will make the final mix. It may be too different from the other songs on the record.

However, it is worth remembering that an odd softsynth, even a free download off the ‘net, can add an original texture to music and may be the missing piece of the puzzle.